Danish developer turns crisis into prospect

While the world around him cried “crisis” and people saved up their money, Danish real estate developer Flemming Bo Sørensen took a different approach to the economical downturn: He opened up one more office and got himself a spot in the famous Danish television show “Hammerslag.”

By Anya Palm

-This looks like the scenery from Apocalypse Now! I can almost hear the chopper, says a curly haired man as he reaches the end of the outside stairway. He is on the roof top balcony of a brand new house – just finished hours before he appeared here – admiring the sight of endless pineapple fields and mountains in the distance.

 The house is 140 sqm and has been sold recently. The new owner will move in later in the day. However, real estate developer Flemming Bo Sørensen is not quite done with it yet. The curly haired man turns to him: -Does the jacuzzi work? Can we turn on the jacuzzi? Sørensen confirms and helps the TV-host figure out the buttons on the outdoor roof top spa. Peter Ingemann with the curls has been the host of the one of the most watched Danish shows on television, Hammerslag, for six years. It has been running for over 20 years and usually gets around 20 percent of the viewers when aired. The concept is simple – two teams of real estate agents are shown three or four houses. They take a guess at the price and whoever comes closest gets point. One of the featured houses in the Christmas special of the show will be Unit A2 in Flemming Sørensens project Oriental Mountain View; 13 houses in an enclave build up around a large pool, a little outside Hua Hin. For Sørensen, this means 1,3 million potential buyers’ undivided attention for an hour.

-I am happy to be on the show, very happy. I am looking forward to put the house on display, so people back in Denmark can see for themselves that good quality houses come with an equally good price here in Thailand. These houses are Danish quality and Danish management. You have to be blind not to see, this is a good deal, he says. His clients seem to agree – 80 percent of Mountainview-houses’ first phase were sold before they were even build. Two more phases are waiting to be realized and expected to go equally easy.

From agent to developer  

Flemming Sørensen has been in Thailand for four years. Educated as salesman, it was natural for him to present the best of Thailand to the Danish market and thus, he worked as a real estate agent the first year, selling houses to Scandinavian customers. After having understood the market better, he decided to make the shift from agent to independent developer. He set up his company, Oriental Invest, in 2006. This way, he can be involved in every aspect of the sell, from the first brick is laid to choosing the art on the walls in the houses.  

-I took the chance, because things were going well as an agent. I did not want to just fly in and start building houses immediately, because that is bound to go wrong, but I felt it was time to try this out, he says.

And thus the Dane started out with office in Rayong, then Bangkok and six months ago  - amidst a worldwide economic crisis - he opened up one more in Hua Hin.

-          Of course, you have to be careful in times of crisis and I do not just open up offices and go at it like a bulldozer. But the crisis also means that I can rent office space cheaper and Hua Hin is where the best land for the best price is right now, he explains.

Currently the Danish entrepreneur has three projects in Hua Hin. Oriental Mountian View, which is almost done and will consist of 35 houses in total, once the construction is fully done, Oriental City Villas, a central enclave in Hua Hin of 18 villas and Oriental Beach Pearl, which is yet at the drawing board, but is to be located south of Hua Hin and consist of 73 villas surrounded by a 2000 sqm swimming pool.

-          It is a big project and I am quite excited about it. I look forward to be able to show it to people already, he says.

So in Thailand, things are moving fast for the Dane. He sells his houses with the offer of a four percent rental guarantee as a service – the customers can accept and live in the house for six weeks every year. Or they can decline and use the house the whole year round. This has proven to be an effective tool in a market, where the word “guarantee” is more welcome than usual, when spending money. His appearance on Hammerslag will boost business as well, he hopes. Or, as TV-host Peter Ingemann puts it: -Really, if you adjust your loans in the bank minimally, you can afford a house in Thailand. Not many people know that.

Well, now they do. And for Flemming Sørensen right now the question is simple: How many of the TV-watching Danes back home like the smell of pineapple in the morning?